If you’ve read about my Powerful Gratitude Journal Prompts for When Life is Hard, then you know those gratitude journal prompts were created out of the worst year ever! Well, now that I’m on the other side of it all, I want to come back and talk to you about What I Manifested From The Worst Year Ever and how you can trust that the universe and God have a grand plan for your life!
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Recapping my Worst Year
If you’ve listened to my Podcast, The Celebration Effect Podcast or read my past blogs, then you might know I struggled with some truly crappy things recently. And just as the saying goes, “When it rains, it pours!” And there was certainly no exception in my case. With everything from my mom being diagnosed with (and later passing from) cancer, a legal battle, my husband losing his job, facing homelessness because of a careless realtor, getting in trouble for something in my business, almost losing my job at work, and a true divide among everyone around me. It truly felt like my world was falling apart.
Have you ever felt like that? I think we’ve all been there at some point.
Before What I Manifested From The Worst Year Ever
So what do you do when things are REALLY hard? Well, write in your gratitude journal, of course!
When I sat down to give thanks during this extremely hard time, I was trying to dig deeper than just the things on the surface that I wanted. For example, my mom to be cured. My husband to have his job back. The buyers of our house who couldn’t seem to grow a heart to leave us alone. The relator to step up and help us through the situation. Our dream home not gone forever. People to see the corruption.
While I did give thanks for those types of things, I also knew to focus on what was going right in my life. After all, that’s what gratitude is ALL about. So I focused on the good. The husband, who I couldn’t have gone through it all without. My beautiful, amazing, healthy, smart, daughter. My family, job, and so many other things.
The Universe Has Your Back
So while I did thank God for the things I thought I wanted. I also said things like, “Thank you God that everything is working out for us in divine timing.” In one of my favorite books, The Game of Life and How to Play It, it talks about why this is so important. “All the good that is to be made manifest is already an accomplished fact in divine mind and is released through man’s spoken word. So he must be careful to decree that only the divine idea be made manifest.”
You might be asking, what in the F does that even mean? well, you know how everyone’s always saying, “The Universe Has Your Back”. This is exactly what this means! It means that even when you think you know what you want (i.e. all the stuff I listed above), the Universe and God often have different plans for you. BETTER plans for you. So it’s best to ask for what is meant to be instead of what you want.
The book encourages you give thanks like this: “Infinite spirit, I give thanks for X which is mine by divine right, and it manifests under grace in a perfect way.” You can read more about the books I recommend here.
What I Thought I Wanted to Manifest
Well, let me preface to say this. The house we wanted to buy before the world went to hell in a hand basket, was in a location that was close to my in laws, which was going to be great! Not just that, but it seemed like our dream home! It was actually the model home from a developer and it literally came with everything inside the house! Like EVERYTHING. You know when you go to model houses and you see the pool furniture, the grand piano, the office furniture, the outdoor TVs and barware, the styled bar cart, couches, beds and on and on? That ALL came with the house! It was almost too good to be true. And clearly, it was 😉
But after my husband lost his job and we lost the ability to buy the house. And I started to see things a little bit differently. There were quite a few things about that house I didn’t necessarily love when I really thought about it. It wasn’t a bright white kitchen. In fact, it was black. And what did I really need a grand piano for anyway?
What I Manifested From The Worst Year Ever
What transpired next really blew my mind, and why I know this process is so powerful.
I manifested New Friends
First, just as our house was not being sold during my worst year ever, the house next door to us did sell, and two people moved in who became some of our best friends! Seriously. And get this! I had been writing in my gratitude journal that we would find a house where we had the best neighbors that were our great friends, and loved spending time together! And that all came true! I just didn’t realize it would be the same house we already lived in! (Coincidence?)
I manifested A School That Was More Aligned to What We Needed
One of the main reasons we were moving in the first place was to be in a better school district for our daughter. And that deadline was FAST approaching! And it turned out that while everything was happening, we realized that we wanted to send our daughter to a very different type of school that wouldn’t have been available to us if we had moved to the original house! (Coincidence?)
I manifested Our True Dream Home
When we did find the perfect school for our daughter (which was another coincidence for another time!), we found an even BETTER house near that school that far exceeded the other house! It had my dream kitchen (like I’d been writing about for years in my gratitude journal.) It had an amazing master bathroom. (Also in my journal!) And we were able to move in one day before my daughter’s first day of Kindergarten! (Coincidence?)
I manifested Like-Minded Relationships
As it turns out, our new house has the BEST next-door neighbors as well, whom we love! They have a little girl the same age as our daughter and they became best friends instantly! The neighborhood we moved to is kind of a dream, and I am obsessed with it. Lastly, I have definitely never felt closer to my sisters after what we went through with my Mom. Lastly, I believe people were removed from my life because we are not aligned energetically at this time.
I manifested New Beliefs
After my mom passed, it started me thinking so much about why we’re here. I often wonder if my mom’s purpose had something to do with “waking me up”. Now, if you don’t know what that means, that’s totally fine. But if you know, you know. My mom was someone who was always questioning things things here on earth. As she transitioned out of this world, I finally get what she was saying all these years. I wish I could tell her, but somehow, I know she knows. 😉 Life is all about questioning (despite what the media says these days), and her life and death has me asking more questions than ever. And I believe that’s the whole point!
When We Allow the Universe to Lead, Synchronicities Unfold
I’m not telling you this to brag. I’m telling you this because when we allow the Universe to take hold and we let go of the exact details of how we think we want it to play out, things can be EVEN BETTER than we ever thought. “What a small world”, we love to say! We should replace that with “What a divine world”. Because as it turns out, nothing is happening TO us. Everything is happening FOR us. When we allow the universe to lead, synchronicities unfold!
Parting Words about Gratitude When Life is Hard
Here’s the thing though. It’s not helpful to tell someone ELSE going through a hard time that “this too shall pass”. It’s rude, and totally bypasses their feelings. However, here’s what is acceptable, YOU taking accountability for YOU. You see, the more we go through hard times, the more we develop a knowing that “This too shall pass”. A knowing is different than an understanding. You only truly know what it’s like to go through hard times when you, yourself, have woken up in the middle of the night heartbroken that the thing you’re going through isn’t just a dream. Yes, the person really did that to you. That guy really did say it was over. A doctor told you that you’ve got something you don’t want. Your mom really isn’t here anymore.
No one can go through that stuff for you. But maybe you don’t want that anyway. Maybe this is what you came for? (Queue the Rhianna song.) You’re not just here for the stuff that feels good. You’re here for ALL the stuff. To feel and experience it ALL!
…and maybe manifest some pretty cool shit along the way!!!
Let’s Connect
Lastly, thank you so much for taking the time to read about What I Manifested From The Worst Year Ever! I hope this gives you some ideas about what might be waiting on the other side of a very challenging time in your life! I love to help you celebrate life through party decorations and personal development! But above all, I’d love to connect with you. Reach out to me on Instagram and let’s chat. You can also get started on celebrating your life with your FREE gratitude journal printable or by subscribing to my podcast, The Celebration Effect Podcast! I can’t wait to connect with you more.
xox
Lindsay
